Day 1: Road trip to Austria : Figueras 2011

Google Maps : Figueras,Spain

We left Jalon at about 14:30 on Saturday (about two hours later than planned) and got to Figueras in the north at about 19:30 in the evening.

Figueras is a town my family used to visit when I was about 8 years old, so I don´t have much memory of it but this time it seemed to me to be a rather unlovely and shabby town with not much to offer, if Dali had´nt lived and worked there I wonder if anyone would spend much time there. You get the distinct feeling that everyone that lives there is living off his fame.

Everywhere is Dali, in every shop and bar and restaurant. In the Plaza (named Plaça Salvador y Gala Dali, funnily enough). The bars and restaurants offer less than satisfactory quality as well as quality of service. It seems to be the excuse to overcharge tourists that put money in their pockets, some people never learn, It turned out to be a big disappointment and we shall not be going there again. In this part of the world everything is Catalan, as if it´s some sort of superior culture, it is not and the Catalalunyans go on about it Ad Nauseam. If you are a real Dali fan go there, if not, Spain has such a rich history and if Dali had never been born, it would´nt have changed much of Spains history!

In my life´s journey, I have come to realize, that being cultured, is accepting that one´s culture is not better or higher than another.

The Hotel was O.K, but little cramped with a desk situated as far away from a power point as was humanly possible, which meant I had to run the laptop on batteries ,then, to add insult to injury, they charged me €3.00 for a the privilege of connecting to the slowest WIFI network in the western world and this is why this post is being posted from Italy, two days later!

Breakfast was every man or woman for themselves-if you could find a space or table-the coffee machine ran out of Coffee,there were no Knives,forks or spoons,as the the waitress (the only one inhouse) was on a cigarette break,which apparently was her right and was written in Labour law, then complained about the smoke coming from the toaster because we hotel guests did,´nt know how to use a toaster.(Or should I say be smoking- been there,done it)!

Presumably if one smokes 20 Marlborough a day,you know about smoke, we guests on the other hand,know nothing!